Hypoglycemia is the condition that results when the body is low in blood sugar. A person may become dizzy, weak, sleepy, confused, nervous and hungry depending on the severity of the attack. Why does this condition happen anyway? To understand, let’s try and get into our bodies and see what happens when we eat and how the body regulates blood sugar.

Well, you take in a nice meal which your body desperately needs to convert into sugar or glucose which is its main source of energy. After digestion, the sugar is transported through the bloodstream to the body’s cells.

This is when the pancreas secretes insulin which is needed for the sugar to enter the cells. What happens in a hypoglycemia attack?

In a nutshell, a hypoglycemia attack is when the blood sugar levels decrease and become lower than normal. There may be a number of reasons why this sudden drop may happen. Here are some common ones.

When hypoglycemia happens:

• Drinking too much alcohol on an empty stomach. When this happens, your bloodstream ends up full of alcohol and little or no glucose. When your brain senses this sudden drop, it causes the body to react. This is where dizziness, hunger and the other signs may come in.
• Certain medications. For example, if you are a diabetic patient, insulin is one of the most probable medications you’ll be taking. Sometimes, you may have excess insulin in your system in comparison to the glucose.
• Starvation or diet. Those who are on a weight loss diet usually keep sugars out of their systems so it is no surprise that hypoglycemia becomes more probable. With low sugar due to cutting down on food intake, you will also face the same symptoms.
• Kidney or liver complications. When your kidney has some complications, it may become difficult for it to get rid of medication. This may become concentrated in your bloodstream. As for your liver, when there is some malfunction, it may not be able to release the stored glucose into the bloodstream. Problems on either organs therefore may cause hypoglycemia.
• Endocrine deficiencies. When your pituitary and adrenal glands have some disorder, there may be complications in controlling and regulating the sugar process and production.
• Insulinoma. This is a very rare tumor that grows on the pancreas. This condition may also become a cause of hypoglycemia since it may disrupt the pancreas’ production of insulin.

Hypoglycemia isn’t as serious and life threatening as diabetes. Still, severe cases may cause comma and even death. Keeping your glucose levels normal is therefore the only way for you to try and prevent and control this ailment.

Being prepared for any attacks is one of the best things to do. First of all though, you must know how high your risks are of getting these attacks. Once you know that, you can note what may be common triggers of the attack.  Carrying around drinks that can instantly boost your glucose levels is also very handy.

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